Finally, Home

For the past 4 months, I’ve been applying for housing in Michigan and failing. The landlords put my social security number through a machine and it tells them things they don’t want to hear: that I am a single mom, that my ex-husband once declared me on his taxes [and had his girlfriend at the time forge my name] and now I owe the IRS a couple Gs; that I sometimes don’t have the money to pay my phone bills. Based on these facts, they denied me housing, and until a couple of days ago, I was homeless and despondent.

I grew up with a precarious idea of home, and an even more precarious home life. So the news that my son and I will finally have a house to live in has lifted my spirits.